I brought the bike home Sunday (5 days ago) and didn't notice anything when I brought it home. It had a full tank of gas. I rode it for a bit on Monday and on Tuesday I could smell a little gas in the garage, but not much. I rode for a bit yesterday and could smell it when I stopped the bike and again when I put the bike in the garage last night. The bike has no fairings right now (not even the side fairings between the seat and the tank. This morning I noticed a small puddle under the bike about the size of my palm that smelled like gas. The dealer said the plastic connectors go bad pretty often, and I'm wondering how difficult it may be to fix myself.

First thing is find exactly where the leak is.
If it is one of the female dry-break connectors on the fuel pump that has fractured, they can be replaced yourself - some have reported the old ones came out easy, others (like me!) had it snap right off when attempting to unscrew it which exacerbated the process considerably!
You can replace with OEM or it is possible to get metal replacements.

But first, figure out where it is leaking from - the dry-breaks usually get broken when tank is removed or replaced - not when everything has been status-quo.

Check to see if it is leaking from either of the rubber hoses that come from the drain/vent nipples. Especially since you said it had full tank. The tubes inside the tank have been known to leak (had this myself).

The smell is strongest from the area in between the tank and the seat...where the side fairing pieces bolt on, or at least from where I could tell. There are 2 hoses that are at the bottom of the bike, but I've never really understood what they were for. I'm not positive the leak came from there, but it's definitely possible. If it's from the hoses, what's probably going on?

Pop the side panel off the right side and just inspect the dry-break fittings first of all

Here's what you're going to be looking at:
The quick-disconnect fuel fittings are dead center of the pump - one of them is coloured red.
Should be pretty obvious once you remove the panel if that's where it's leaking

Mine has no side panels right now, so that's the view i have at this time. I assume i need to remove the hose itself to examine if it's leaking, or will i be able to tell right away by looking for it. i apologize for my ignorance...working on vehicles is still pretty new to me.

i'll check there, but i have a feeling it's not coming from there since i didn't see anything earlier. what's the deal with the hoses coming out at the bottom?

Not sure about the 2003 models, but my 2002 had a recall on the fuel fittings that were replaced free by the dealer.

Good luck with it.

Somehow I had this idea when I was growing up that if you wanted something bad enough, you would work hard until you got it. That was then. This is now. Now you vote for it. That's change you can believe in.

Ok, just went home and looked at it. Turns out there was fuel leaking from the connector. I can't tell easily if it's coming from the top one or the bottom one, but it appears to be coming from the top, dripping down to the bottom one, and then falling off. I picked up 2 connectors to be sure. Looking at them, they appear pretty simple...one end screws into the fuel pump and the fuel line connects to a red or white end that plugs into the connector after pushing the metal spring loaded clip. I'm worried about how much of a pain it might be to unscrew the existing connector from the pump. Any tips?

Also, do i need to drain the fuel from the tank before removing the clips? will fuel start pouring out of the lines when i disconnect them from the connector? will fuel pour out of the fuel pump when i unscrew the connectors?

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Triumph Forum: Triumph Rat Motorcycle Forums forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter your valid email address, that can receive an automated confirmation message. Otherwise, you won't be able to gain full access.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.